Thanksgiving: Chicken wrapped in Bacon w/Mashed Potatoes

Alright, so in keeping with Thanksgiving's tendency to eat some sort of poultry I went with Chicken. I know it's not a Turkey, but since I am not cooking for a family and only myself, I tend to skimp on making massive meals like that. I'll have this split up in two parts to avoid confusion.


Chicken wrapped in Bacon:
3 Chicken Breasts
Bacon
Flour
Breadcrumbs
Ancho Chile Powder
Marjoram
Garlic Salt
Paprika
Ground Black Pepper
Sea Salt
Lawry's Seasoned Salt
Olive Oil

Alright, so assemble your ingredients. Set oven to 400 degrees BAKE.

Put your flour into a mixing bowl. I used about 2/3 cup of Flour. About the same amount of Breadcrumbs. Then however much of the spices as you want. A healthy dose of each if you ask me. After the fact, a little less Ancho Chile Powder couldn't hurt.

Now mix it thoroughly together.

Now that it looks amazing and smells like amazing, let's move to the Chicken.

Take out your Chicken Breasts, trim them if need be, and tenderize them. Well, tenderize might not be the best term to use. So just flatten them out. Use a tenderizer if you have one. I have two called Left Fist and Right Fist. Good times right there.

Now one at a time, place them in the Flour mixture.

Then flip.

Now on a cooking board, place out a strip of Bacon and put the Chicken on there. Make sure there is a little bit out at one end to being the wrapping part. You wrap it up from that end towards the other. You can wrap the Bacon under the Chicken if you want or use a toothpick as I did.

Now using a glass cooking dish, sprinkle in some Olive Oil. This is where you will put your Chicken once it is properly wrapped in Bacon. Feel free to add some more Flour mixture on top of them once they are ready for the oven.

Put in oven and set a timer for 45 minutes. It should take about this long, but each oven is different. Mine ended up taking about 1 hour.

Mashed Potatoes:
2.5 lb Gold Yukon Potatoes
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
1/2 stick Butter
3/4 cup Milk (2%)

This was my first attempt at making Mashed Potatoes and I figured that this was a good time to try it out.

I began by boiling the Potatoes. So put them in a saucepan/pot that is large enough to at least mostly cover them with water. A dash of Sea Salt here does not hurt in the slightest.

I boiled them for about 45 minutes. The water in there turns a few shades darker while they boil.

Once done, I turned off the heat and used a strainer to strain the water out. I kept the Potatoes in the strainer as I cut up the Butter and put that in the still warm saucepan. This way it melts quite readily. I also added in the Milk. Then the Potatoes. I cut them up into small chunks using a fork and knife, then mashed further using the fork. I do not own a potato masher, so this is how I made do. Add Sea Salt and Pepper to taste.

Now just couple with the Chicken wrapped in Bacon and your dish is complete. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving: Asparagus w/Rice

Alright everyone who checks this blog out, it's Thanksgiving time. This is an American holiday that is no stranger to gluttony and American Football. I have a few things I'll be posting up here between now and then (this upcoming Thursday) to be cooked for this grand event.

Ingredients:
1 lb Asparagus
1/3 stick Butter
Olive Oil
Rice
Italian Herb Mix
Sea Salt
Ground Black Pepper
Turmeric Powder
Ancho Chile Powder
Sweet Smoked Paprika
Teriyaki Sauce

To start off with, I went for the Butter. I cut it into slivers and put them in a large saucepan with the heat set to MEDIUM.

Once they started to melt, I added in a pinch of all the spices but the Italian Herb Mix.

Mmmm...tasty. Now put in the Asparagus.

Mix it around to cover it with the buttery spice conglomeration.

Drizzle in a little bit of Olive Oil to make sure there is no chance of burning once the Butter becomes scarce.

Now, the Rice was made in my rice cooker. 1 cup Rice to 1.5 cups Water. The instructional manual says 1.25 cups Water but I find that it leaves the Rice too sticky and not as good as it could be, so a little more was needed.

Once both are cooked to completion, just dish the Rice into a bowl and add the Asparagus on top with a sprinkle of Italian Herb Mix. I also drizzled some Teriyaki Sauce on top for fun. Enjoy.